Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler ABCs of APC UPSs

Hmmmm.. I'm not familiar with it. Thanks, I'll look into it!

Speaking of failing batteries... Is there any way to test, or tell if a battery is close to failing?

I can just wait and every time a production computer crashes due to power outage, but I prefer a more elegant solution.

There should be some sort of management interface you can use; there's also the test button on the UPS--whatever that does. You could always just unplug it from the wall...

To the best of my knowledge (and I'm pretty sure about this), this is NOT a good idea with lead acid batteries. NiCad, definitely, and nickel metal hydride & li-ion sometimes, depending upon use patterns and "memory" issues.

As an engineer who uses a lot of rechargeable batteries and replaced my Macbook battery 4x, I should've realized this. My APC UPS beeped years ago after about 5 years of use. It never occurred to me that it was the battery. I just stopped using that block of plugs out of sheer laziness.

Are there any reasonably priced UPS's that have a replaceable battery? Or are home users just expected to buy new ones every few years? That'd be a waste.

They're replaceable. Just expensive.

I should've said is there a type that has 'reasonable' replacement batteries or does it end up costing the same buying new ones?

I do the unplug thing every once in a while, but I know I checked the one that failed today when the first one failed and it showed no problems.

I noticed the computer connection on the new ones today. Guess I have something to check out at work Tomorrow night.

Is it ever recommended to just apply a load to these (say, a 60 watt bulb) and just let them run down occasionally (NOT down to the point of -0- amperage, but just down to, say, 15%)?

It's been hit or miss with our units at work. We've had some on line for 6+ years without a hickup and we've had others that lasted about a year including a HUGE APC unit with 2 - 20 Amp circuits that will run over an hour at full load! The batteries on that unit died about a week after the warranty expired. I got replacement batteries from Planet Battery and it's been fine for several years now.

Scott